Developer says tribe is trying to hijack casino lawsuit

This is the costly legacy Governor Slot Barns Patrick has created.

Developer says tribe is trying to hijack casino lawsuit
By Gerry Tuoti
Taunton Gazette
Posted Sep 19, 2012

The proponent behind a plan to build a casino in New Bedford filed a motion in federal court Wednesday opposing the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe’s recent request to intervene in a pending lawsuit the firm has against the state.

The proponent, KG Urban Enterprises, argues that the concerns the Aquinnah raise are not relevant to the pending legal challenge against Section 91 of the state gaming law, a provision that gives an eligible federally recognized American Indian tribe the first shot at the casino market in southeastern Massachusetts.

“If the Aquinnah believe they have been wronged by the Commonwealth’s refusal to negotiate a gaming compact, they have a number of different avenues through which they can seek relief,” KG Urban’s attorneys said in a motion filed Wednesday. “Intervening in KG’s unrelated suit is not one of them.”

As the law currently stands, KG Urban — or any other commercial developer in southeastern Massachusetts — would only get a shot at bidding for a gaming license if another tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag, fails in its pursuit of a Taunton casino. The pending lawsuit in federal court will determine whether that will remain to be the case.

The motion states that KG Urban’s suit is “challenging the Commonwealth’s grant of a race-based regional gaming monopoly to a single, landless tribe — the Mashpee Wampanoag.”

The state law allows for up to one casino in each of three regions of Massachusetts, but the commonwealth won’t solicit bids for a commercial casino in the southeastern region unless the Massachusetts Gaming Commission determines the tribe is unlikely to have land taken in trust by the federal government.

Andrew Stern, managing director of KG Urban, called the procedure a “semi-rigged process.”

The Mashpee tribe has a land application pending with the Department of the Interior. Some have questioned the tribe’s ability to have land taken into trust after the 2009 Carcieri v. Salazar Supreme Court ruling.

Gov. Deval Patrick has said that he doesn’t believe the market in Massachusetts can sustain more than three casinos spread out across the state.  [Since the revenue projections are overstated, the market probably can't support 3 either, but you knew that when you failed to support an INDEPENDENT COST ANALYSIS.] Since the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows a casino to be built by any federally recognized tribe with sovereign land in a state that allows casino gambling, Massachusetts decided to give the Mashpee a chance to resolve their land issues. In order for the Mashpee to maintain their exclusive hold, the state law required them to reach a compact with the state by July 31, which they did.

In the lawsuit against the commonwealth, KG Urban claims the state is in violation of the federal and state equal protection clauses by permitting American Indian tribes the first shot at a casino license in southeastern Massachusetts.

The Mashpee and the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribes are the only two tribes that have been federally recognized. The Aquinnah are also pursuing a casino, but the Patrick administration has refused to negotiate a compact with them, maintaining that they forfeited their rights to gaming in a 1980s land settlement.

“The Aquinnah tribe now seeks to divert KG’s suit in order to litigate complex and wholly unrelated issues involving whether the Aquinnah waived their right to engage in gaming as part of a settlement of land claims in the mid-1980s,” KG Urban’s attorneys said in the motion filed Wednesday. “That dispute involves different facts, different state and federal statutes, and negotiations that transpired nearly 30 years ago—and it has nothing to do with the Equal Protection Clause or the constitutionality of the Massachusetts Gaming Act.”

The Patrick administration, the lead defendant in KG Urban’s lawsuit, filed a response in court Wednesday taking no position on the Aquinnah tribe’s request to intervene.

Read more: http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/x551367531/Developer-says-tribe-is-trying-to-hijack-casino-lawsuit#ixzz27WsRwmg4